Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (?????? ????????? ??????) (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) (Old Style: 17 January 1860 – 2 July 1904) was a major Russian playwright and perhaps the foremost modern writer of the short story.

Assessment

It can be safely said that Chekhov revolutionized the genre of short story; his subject matter and technique influenced many future short-story writers. It is often said that little action occurs in Chekhov's stories and plays, but he compensates for lack of outward excitement by his original techniques for developing internal drama. The point of a typical Chekhov story is most often what happens within a given character, and that is conveyed indirectly, by suggestion or by significant detail. Chekhov echews the traditional build-up of chronological detail, instead emphasizing moments of epiphanies and illumination over a significantly shorter period of time. As such, his best stories have a psychological realism and conciceness seldom matched by other writers. Tolstoy likened Chekhov's technique to that of the French Impressionists, who daubed canvases with paint apparently without reason, but acheived an overall effect of vivid, unchallengeable artistry.

Related Topics:
Genre - Tolstoy - Impressionists

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Chekhov's main themes are work and love, and the lack of lasting satisfaction they provide. His younger characters are usually portrayed as victims of illusion, the older ones as victims of disillusionment. The passage of time is a constant preoccupation, as are the trivialities of life and the desultory and unsuccessful search for its meaning.

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One critic says of Chekhov that he is no moralist — he simply says "you live badly, ladies and gentlemen," but his smile has the indulgence of a very wise man.

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As samples of the Russian epistolary art, Chekhov's letters have been rated second only to Aleksandr Pushkin's by the literary historian D.S. Mirsky. Although Chekhov is still chiefly known for his plays, critical opinion shows signs of establishing the stories, particularly those that were written after 1888, as an even more significant and creative literary achievement.

Related Topics:
Aleksandr Pushkin - 1888

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Equally innovative in his dramatic works, Chekhov sought to convey the texture of everyday life and move away from traditional ideas of plot and conventions of dramatic speech. Dialogue in his plays is not smooth or continuous: characters interrupt each other, several different conversations take place at the same time, and lengthy pauses occur when no one speaks at all. A recurring theme is the pointlessness of radical, human or mechanical change, versus the powerful inertia of slow organic cycles.

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One of the actors once told Chekhov that Stanislavsky intended to have frogs croaking, the sound of dragonflies, and dogs barking on the stage. "Why?" Chekhov asked with a note of dissatisfaction in his voice. "It is realistic," the actor replied. "Realistic," Chekhov repeated with a laugh, and after a slight pause he said: "The stage is art. There is a canvas of Kranskoi (a famous Russian painter) in which he wonderfully depicts human faces and substituted a real one. The nose will be realistic but the picture will be spoiled." -->

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Perhaps one of his best known contributions is Chekhov's dictum (also known as Chekhov's Gun): If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.

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